Sabore receives a certificate from the Tanzanian National Soccer Coach for participating in a soccer program called Future Stars.
Helena, Neema and Flora practice their netball skills.
Teachers at the staff retreat we had a few weeks back.
Saingorie, our recently elected student body president, gives a speech that had students clapping and cheering!
The following is an account of a series of events that happened recently on a dalla dalla ride to a sporting event. This is Lisa's rendition of the tale...
8:30 AM Realize that due to a change in who our dala dala 'guy' is, we had a misunderstanding and no one was there to pick up the kids for their 10:00 game at ISM.
8:40 AM New dala guy is contacted and says a dala is on the way
8:55 AM Peter, Lisa and Whitney arrive at Dr. Danny's and meet Mzee and the students that walked from Bombani. No dala in sight, so Mzee, Peter, Whitney and the boys leave in the Hilux because the boys are playing at 10 am. Lisa and the girls (going to watch the boys and the awards ceremony) start walking to meet the dala.
9:20 AM Still no dala…. Now at Ngarash Primary School
9:35 AM Still no dala…. Now arrived in Monduli Town and are waiting at George's Corner. Find out the dala is late because of a flat tire.
9:42 AM Dala finally arrives, girls and Lisa head to ISM.
9:47 AM Get a call from Alfred, the league coordinator, that we have a girls game as well. Dala waits at Lashaine Corner while Lisa goes to school on a boda to get jerseys, etc.
10:50 AM Leave from Lashaine Corner, hoping to make it for an 11:30 game at ISM.
11:04 AM After getting stopped by the police near Snake Park, dala driver realizes he has another flat tire. While we are still inside the dala, he jacks it up and changes the tire. When he lowers it down, there is no emergency brake, so we start rolling down the hill. Thankfully, Langoi was able to find the brake and stop us.
11:20 AM Leave Snake Park after changing the flat tire. Can't drive over 50 kph because the whole dala shakes and rattles A LOT at that speed.
11:40 AM Arrive at ISM… Boys finish their game, girls play a game, we watch the awards ceremony, it starts downpouring.
2:00 PM Waiting at ISM for the rain to let up because some of the kids have to ride home in the back of the Hilux.
2:17 PM Depart ISM, even though it's still raining a bit.
2:25 PM Torrential downpour! Peter has to stop because boys are soaked, cold and angry.
2:38 PM Dala stops, we think it's another flat tire.
2:42 PM Peter and Hilux catch up to broken dala. Find out it's not a flat tire (which is good because now there's no spare), but instead the axel or something is falling apart. They tighten some things and we head into Meserani at 5kph. The good news is we got to watch a flash flood happen right before our eyes while we are waiting for them to fix the dala.
3:13 PM Dala pulls up to a random welding fundi in Meserani. While we are still in the dala, they jack it up again, and some guy starts welding things underneath us. Thankfully they remembered that there's no emergency brake, so Isaack is in the driver's seat to apply the brakes so we don't roll away.
3:23 PM Welding guy finishes, we leave Meserani. We can travel a whopping 5kph, so we slowly head towards Monduli.
3:37 PM Still trying to get to Monduli. Stopping every 3 k or so to tighten whatever is falling apart under the dala. Oh, and then we got to see a Maasai dude herding camels. Entertaining except the fact that the camels were walking faster than the dala was moving...
3:45 PM Finally make it to the Monduli turn-off.
3:57 PM Decide to start taking kids in the Hilux to town to meet Seth to go to the village. First group of kids leaves with the Hilux, the rest of us keep going at 5kph with stops along the way in the dala.
4:07 PM Peter returns with Hilux to take group number two of students.
4:23 PM Dala finally quits completely. Tanzanian hazards are put out on the road (ie: leaves and branches). The remainging students and teachers start walking to town.
4:42 PM Peter finds us on the road and takes us to Monduli. He drops off the teachers with Seth to go home and takes the last group of students to the village.
5:02 PM We are finally home from the two soccer matches at ISM that were scheduled for 10 am and 11:30 am.
National Soccer Coach Visits Orkeeswa
This past week we had a two visitors from the Tanzanian national soccer team - the head coach and the director of the youth soccer program. They were doing a coaches training in Arusha (which some of our coaches attended) then traveled to our school for a visit. It was HUGE for our students to see him since they had seen him on the television!
Lisa travels to Dar Es Salaam
Two of our students are traveling to the U.S. for two months. They needed travel documents, a visa and passport, to make that happen. That's not easy to make happen in Tanzania. Especially when the passport office stops issuing passports two weeks before the trip! Nevertheless, with the influence of Rapha and the persistence of Lisa, the girls got their documents. Lisa spent Tuesday through Saturday in Dar chaperoning and helping the girls with their interviews. Long week in a hot place! But in the end, amazingly enough it worked out!
Students Elect Leaders
Student government elections were a couple weeks ago. Students gave speeches and elected leaders for school president and vice president, class representation and sports assistants. It was a good election and I think we got some really good students. The president was elected on the platform of "vote for me and I'll change your school lunch food." Now, what student ANYWHERE in the world doesn't want to vote for that guy?
Flora and Anna are headed to the U.S!
As we speak two of our students, Flora and Anna, are heading to the U.S. to spend two months studying at a private school in Boston called Groton. They will also travel extensively with Peter to do fund raising. It's really exciting for them to go but they will be sincerely missed while they are away.
Pastor Justin dies and there are a huge number of people in our yard
Our neighbor, Pastor Justin, passed away on Friday. He was a retired pastor from the Luthern church here in town. We've really never had much interaction with him, but have talked more with his wife, Mary. There have been LOADS of people around here to be with Mary. I think our house must be the overflow because we've had people in our yard pretty much for the last 4 days. Plus, they hired a DJ, so we've had church choir music starting at 6 am to the late night hours. It is cool to see so many people come together like this. There is a rumor some will be camping in our yard tonight.
Whitney and Jane are also leaving this week
Well, the ending of an era! Whitney and Jane both leave this week. They've been working as the office manager and English teacher respectively. They will be missed!
